Dec. 31 (UPI) — The Marine Corps on Thursday announced that more than 200 Marines have been removed after refusing to comply with the Pentagon’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
A total of 206 Marines have been discharged as of Thursday, up from 169 last week, Marine Corps representative Capt. Andrew Wood said in a statement to Politico and The Hill.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin mandated vaccines for all branches of the military in August while allowing each branch to set its own deadline for enforcement. Active-duty Marines were required to be vaccinated by Nov. 28, while the deadline for reservists was Tuesday.
Overall, 95% of the more than 182,000 active-duty Marines are at least partially vaccinated and 94% are fully vaccinated.
“The Marine Corps is still tracking 1,007 approved administrative or medical exemptions,” Wood said.
The Air Force earlier this month discharged 27 members for failing to comply with the vaccine mandate.
The Navy, which will not begin to discharge members until January said on Wednesday that 3,002 Ready Reserve sailors were listed as unvaccinated, missing the branch’s deadline for vaccination.
The National Defense Authorization Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law on Monday, states that discharges for vaccine refusal must be either honorable or general under honorable conditions.
On Wednesday, a federal judge declined a request by Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt to block the vaccine mandate for the state’s National Guard members, ruling that the Biden administration was “acting well within the authority granted by the Constitution and laws of the United States,” in issuing the requirement.
